Composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, singer, bandleader and DJ Emma-Jean Thackray kicks off 2022 with the release of ‘Yellower Vol.1’ – a live EP featuring standout performances from 2021 of tracks taken from her acclaimed debut album ‘Yellow’.
The new EP includes live recordings from Pitchfork festival, BBC TV’s Later… With Jools Holland and sessions at The Church Studios.
Listen to lead track “Say Something” (Live on Later… With Jools Holland) HERE
The ‘Yellower Vol.1’ live EP arrives just before the start of Thackray’s February/March UK headline tour (presented by Music-Net) and one-off London date at EartH Theatre in April.
“When the band and I play live the music takes on new life. We use so much improvisation and there’s so much trust between us that every show is a brand new one where anything can happen,” shares Thackray.
Full list of UK live shows is as follows;
23 February Birmingham Hare & Hounds
24 February Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach
25 February Bristol Lost Horizon
26 February Leeds Headrow House
27 February Hull Social
2 March Liverpool 24 Kitchen Street
3 March Manchester Band on the Wall
4 March Gateshead The Sage
5 March Glasgow Broadcast
8 April London EartH Theatre
Tickets for all above dates available HERE
2021 saw the release of Thackray’s highly anticipated debut album ‘Yellow’, released via her own label Movementt,. ‘Yellow’ debuted at No.1 on Jazz & Blues Chart (remaining on top for 6 weeks) and charted Top 75 on the UK Official Album Chart. Thackray was named the winner of UK Jazz Act of the Year (Jazz FM Awards), nominated for Best Jazz Act at this year’s MOBO Awards and Gilles Peterson crowned ‘Yellow’ his 6Music Album of The Year.
Thackray has proven to be a very in-demand artist these past twelve months, providing brass on the forthcoming Squid debut ‘Bright Green Field’ as well as for London wordsmith Pinty’s radio hit ‘Comfort Me’. Thackray was also part of the Blue Note RE:imagined album alongside Shabaka Hutchings, Ezra Collective, Nubya Garcia, Jorja Smith and more.
‘Yellow’ proved exactly the sort of thing the world needed this past year: a transcendent, human, shared experience. Across its 47 minutes, ‘Yellow’ draws glowing lines between ‘70s jazz fusion and P-funk, the cosmic invocations of Sun Ra and Alice Coltrane and the gorgeous orchestration of the Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds’. Undoubtedly one of the artists of 2021, keep an ear to the ground for further news and releases coming this year.
